Welcome to Star Reads, an annual campaign launched by RED Culture together with the National Literacy Trust, to inspire young people to read.

Star Reads aims to inspire young people to read more, particularly those from inner-city and black and minority ethnic backgrounds. The campaign is fully supported within communities and by government agencies across the UK.

“I have long championed the importance of encouraging children to read. Projects like this are essential if we are to promote reading to children from communities and families where books may not be part of everyday life...”

David Lammy MP and Minister for Skills

We operate by providing schools, libraries, youth centres and other government run agencies with multicultural book bundles, posters of top UK celebrities highlighting the importance of reading, and quarterly e-magazines designed to help you promote reading in your establishment using multiculturalism and entertainment. . We also publish recommended reading lists of the best age-appropriate multicultural book titles, to help increase the enjoyment of reading.

The books on the recommended reading list were carefully selected with the help of a diverse panel; members selected have an understanding of literacy and multicultural Britain and the problems faced by those from black and minority ethnic groups, and how literacy can contribute towards combating this. To ensure we were able to provide recommendations of interesting and enjoyable books, pilots were conducted amongst our 4- 8, 9 – 11 and 11 to 14 age ranges. For more information on our pilot and panel click here.